Re: Worm Composting or Tumblers

Wed May 15, 2013 11:34 am

Depends a little on what you want it for. Two different winters I have had a worm bin indoors, just to have something to do with some of the kitchen scraps without having to trek through the snow to the compost bin. It is pretty easy care, but when it warmed up enough, I was glad to take it back outside, because it had gotten a bunch of little flies in it. Probably because I stocked my worm bin with fall leaves for bedding it tended to acquire a lot of life in there-- at different times over the two seasons black soldier fly larvae, flies, slugs, a few pill bugs, and a bunch of teeny tinies.

But if you compost everything like I do - not only kitchen scraps, but all the pulled weeds, fall leaves, yard trimmings, paper towels, etc you would have to have a gigantic worm bin system with a TON of worms to handle it.

Personally I think a simple compost pile/bin is easier and lower maintenance than either a worm bin or a tumbler.

Re: Worm Composting or Tumblers

Fri May 17, 2013 3:17 am

I just want to share my compost bin story with you.

I started my worm bin indoors a couple of winters ago. When it was spring I transferred it to a 3 gallon bucket with holes drilled in the bottom, sides, and lid. I buried it in my garden. The worms go in and out of the bucket and the nutrients are able to diffuse out . When the bucket gets full and ready, I start and new bucket and place it in the old one. Eventually the worms work their way up into the new one. I then dig a new hole in a new location and put the new bucket in it, take out the old bucket, and fill in its hole. Sounds like a pain, but it isn't. I just have a small raised bed, about 6' x 4'.

I live on the western slope of Colorado where it gets into the negative single digits. I put a plastic half barrel over it in the winter. You could probably put straw or something over it to insulate. I did not feed it in the winter. This spring when I looked in there, there weren't any worms. When I started turning over the soil, they were everywhere! They eventually have moved back to the bucket and are reproducing like crazy.

Re: Worm Composting or Tumblers

Sun May 19, 2013 2:13 am

I have mostly greens to compost. Few deciduous trees and not much room for multiple compost piles. Tumblers are hard to heat up and make very little compost. Because they don't really heat up enough, weed seeds and diseases are not necessarily killed, so only clean plants and non persistent weeds without seeds can be put in it. I did bag composting. It is anaerobic, but heat up enough to kill the weeds and produced a little bit of compost. It is easy to turn.

I use the worm bin because most of my materials are greens and weeds. Weeds are persistent nut sedge, pig weed, tick weed, coster's curse, kyringa so composting does not always kill them. Weeds get trashed.

If you have the space and enough browns and greens you will get the best and most compost with a hot composted pile. Cold composted, you have to be picky about what goes in. Tumblers will probably just be cold composting and does not produce much.

If you have mostly greens and not large amounts of browns, worm bins are relatively easy to use. Keep them moist, feed them at least once a week and harvest every 1-3 months.

Either way you go, compost piles attract vermin. Ants, roaches, centipedes, flies. It is hard to keep them out. I keep my worm bin in the garage and I have to evict the roaches regularly. I don't give my worms much fruit so, I have fewer problems with flies. I have netting under the cover of the worm bin to help keep the flies out.

Re: Worm Composting or Tumblers

Mon May 20, 2013 4:44 pm

Thanks everyone for the helpful tips. We line in Michigan and I think the best avenue would be the worm farm for the inside materials and the outside materials would get it's own compost area. This way I could keep the yard waste out of the household. We do have a sunroom that the worms would enjoy in the cold months so I don't think they would have to adapt to the colder weather in a garage.

Re: Worm Composting or Tumblers

Worms won't "adapt" to cold temps. If the temps go below 55 deg F or above 75 to 80 deg F, they die. Be sure you (whoever "you" are!) can provide a steady sort of temp range for them.

My own live in the carport, in the very back, next to the back wall (yes, a carport with a back wall... ), in a Worm Factory, with an old Army blanket draped over them. The blanket protects them from temperature swings, either to the low or the high side; they're in permanent shade, so the ambient air temp is what affects them. They're up out of the rain-soaked surface of the carport (the maker didn't plan it well...).

Re: Worm Composting or Tumblers

Tue May 21, 2013 5:02 pm

imafan26 wrote:I have mostly greens to compost. Few deciduous trees and not much room for multiple compost piles. Tumblers are hard to heat up and make very little compost. Because they don't really heat up enough, weed seeds and diseases are not necessarily killed, so only clean plants and non persistent weeds without seeds can be put in it. I did bag composting. It is anaerobic, but heat up enough to kill the weeds and produced a little bit of compost. It is easy to turn.

I'm not sure if you've tried tumblers, imafan, but in my experience the part in bold couldn't be further from the truth. I have a tumbler, and it gets PLENTY hot in there, especially during the warmer months when it gets more sun and when higher external temperatures don't allow heat to escape as quickly.

Re: Worm Composting or Tumblers

Wed May 22, 2013 10:54 am

I think it is harder to compost when you just have a little bit. Where I live, I have big piles of compost and they heat up well no matter what I put in there. I have no trouble with any kind of bugs. Something does dig the egg shells out during the night. Before I moved it into the fenced garden, the neighbors chickens picked through it every day.

Re: Worm Composting or Tumblers

Fri May 24, 2013 10:47 am

RE: Either way you go, compost piles attract vermin. Ants, roaches, centipedes, flies. It is hard to keep them out.

Vermin is such a pejorative term! Yes, my worm bin does tend to get flies in it (black soldier fly larvae at one point, adult flies of a different variety a different time), as well as a few slugs and pillbugs. Yes my compost pile has a few cockroaches, and flies, as well as pretty many pillbugs, and of course a ton of earthworms. All of them are detritovores and are part of the process of breaking stuff down. My pile doesn't swarm with them--if it did I would think something was out of balance. And I was glad when the weather warmed up enough to take the worm bin outdoors, it got to the point where it wasn't feeling like an indoor thing any more and some of the flies were escaping in to the house.

But (assuming your bins/piles are not inside your house) there is no reason to keep the detritovores out. (Note, I don't live in fire ant country and I don't include fire ants in this statement; they aren't detritovores anyway, I think, just take up residence in the compost pile for the warm, moist, protected location. If I did live in fire ant territory, I would work to keep them out of my compost pile.)

The compost pile is its own little ecosystem, full of various kinds of micro and macro life that are all part of the process. Once the composting is complete, the detritovores go elsewhere, since there is no longer food for them, so you never have to worry about them being in your finished compost.